Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic 2021 dates announced
The Tokyo Olympics will start on July 23, 2021 and the Paralympics on August 24, 2021.
The Olympic Games will take place from July 23 to August 8, 2021, while the Paralympic Games will take place from August 24 to September 5, 2021.
Athletes and fans can start marking their calendars for next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games – we got word of the confirmed 2021 dates today in a statement from the International Triathlon Union.
“We have been working together with all the Olympic and Paralympic stakeholders in the last few days to find new dates for the Tokyo Games, and all the International Federations have unanimously approved this decision,” said World Triathlon President and IOC member, Marisol Casado. “Even though we would have preferred to move the Games to earlier dates, where the impact of the heat was a bit lower, we agreed that these dates are the best solution for all sports, athletes and IFs, and therefore support wholeheartedly the decision. And I am absolutely confident that we will have magnificent Games in Tokyo next summer, with the help and support of all of us involved in the preparations for hosting the event.”
The new dates are exactly one year after the original dates of the Games. This should, according to the ITU, minimize “any disruption that the postponement will cause to the international sports calendar” and provide “sufficient time to finish the qualification process.”
The original dates for the 2020 triathlon events were July 27 for the men’s individual event, July 28 for the women and August 1 for the mixed relay. The paratriathlon events were to be held on August 29 and 30.
Today’s statement confirmed that athletes already qualified for the 2020 Games will be ensured their spots, but officially no athletes have already qualified in triathlon. Some countries have already announced some of their representatives based on their own qualifying standards.
The ITU is still working with the IOC to determine the qualification timeline and process for the Games – much is still in the air due to the uncertainty of when racing might be able to get restarted around the world.
